


Covert Ops

by Armbar_Nation



Series: The Helmsley Organisation Series [3]
Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-07-11
Packaged: 2018-07-11 08:47:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 17,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7041370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Armbar_Nation/pseuds/Armbar_Nation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ronda Helmsley has never been a businesswoman. Despite being second of command of the family empire, she's feeling bored by it. Relief comes in the form of an offer to become part of a three woman team, taking on contracts to perform kidnappings or assassinations. Will Ronda's return to action go as planned?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Hunter Helmsley stepped up to the podium and surveyed the large crowd in front of him as they enthusiastically applauded him. His family, friends and business associates were all assembled to celebrate the latest addition to the Helmsley empire, along with the rest of Warren City's upper class elite. Smiling out at them while he waited for the clapping to die down, he tried to drink in every second of it. Although the transition from meth empire to legitimate business had gone surprisingly smoothly, it had meant that moments of excitement had become something of a rarity, at least where business was concerned. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy conducting business at the highest level - he did - it was just that it was longer quite the thrill that running the operation in its previous form had been.

There was no doubt about the fact that he wasn't the only one who thought that way either. His niece Ronda was still technically his second in command, but the title was all but redundant now. He was the Chairman of the company simply known as Helmsley, and the managers of the many subsidiary companies that he owned reported to him. There were no threats for Ronda to deal with, no illegal dealings to supervise, no need to keep the police happy. Despite what she told him, he knew that Ronda found the new life boring. Action had always been her thing, not diplomacy. Even with his considerable efforts to mentor her, the process of transforming her into a businesswoman wasn't going as well as he had hoped. The truth of it, a truth that he was coming to accept, was that she just wasn't really cut out for it. Part of him wondered if she would have already moved on to something new if it hadn't been for the family connection.

On the face of it, it didn't bode well for the long term future of the business that the only true heiress wasn't cut out or particularly motivated to take over, but Hunter hadn't given up hope. Shane McMahon, Ronda's boyfriend, was a competent businessman and their relationship was going strong. If the worst came to the worst and Ronda continued to fail to adapt, the business could be left to her but Shane could be placed in charge of it. It was far from an ideal solution, but it would keep the business in the family, and that was an absolute must as far as Hunter was concerned.

The applause from the audience had faded away, so Hunter refocused himself on the speech he had to deliver. "Thank you," he said into the microphone which was attached to the podium. "Thank you everyone, and welcome. I'd hoped this moment would have happened long before now. It's actually been over a year and a half since I first decided that I wanted to purchase this place. That's thanks in part to the renovations taking longer than planned, and in part to my good friend Eric Bischoff over there driving such a hard bargain."

The room filled with polite laughter. Hunter had gestured to Bischoff who was standing off to the left and smiled at him, although he had considered more than once during the negotiations how practical the idea of having Bischoff turn up dead somewhere might be. Bischoff laughed along with everyone else and raised his champagne glass to Hunter, as well he might with the amount of money that he'd made from his half-assed casino. The location right next to Helmsley's Marina Heights Hotel and the building's size had been its only real selling points. They'd both known that Hunter wanted to transform the casino and together with Marina Heights create one of the most desirable attractions on the east coast, and boy had Bischoff made him pay for the opportunity to do so.

That was in the past though, Hunter told himself. This was opening night. The deal had been done and the renovations were now complete. What was once a somewhat rundown and unremarkable casino was now state of the art; so much so that it wouldn't have looked at all out of place on the Vegas Strip.

"As you know, the name Helmsley has been synonymous with Warren City for the last twenty years. If people think Warren City they instinctively think Helmsley. If people hear the name Helmsley they think Warren City. The truth is that we've grown together over the years..."

* * *

The speech had been had been delivered expertly, in Ronda's opinion. How her uncle could hold an audience in the palm of his hand like that was something of a mystery to her. She would have headed over to him to offer a congratulatory hug as he stepped off the stage, but a crowd of people were already closer to him than she was, flocking around him like awestruck fans around one of those pointless reality TV celebrities that people seemed to adore for no apparent reason. The difference in her opinion was that Hunter actually deserved the adoration. Her aunt Stephanie was by his side, doing her best not to seem irritated by the fact that she couldn't have her husband to herself.

Deciding to leave her uncle to work his diplomatic magic for a while, she turned to her boyfriend Shane, who was standing beside her. "Shall we uh... mingle for a while? Fuck, I hate that word."

"And you hate doing it too," Shane chuckled at her discomfort. "Let's just get it over with. A couple of hours from now we'll be home and free to do whatever we want."

Ronda linked her arm with his and he lead them off in the direction of a casino staff member who was carrying around a tray bearing glasses of champagne. "Is that a proposition, Mr McMahon?"

"You know it is. And you know you're not going to say no either," he grinned.

Before she could respond, she heard a familiar female voice call her name. Turning in the direction that the voice came from, she saw Warren City's former sheriff Melina Perez walking over towards them. During her time as a police officer and later as sheriff, Melina had been on Helmsley's payroll and had helped keep their dealings secret and their names clear of criminal records. Shane had been the only exception. When he'd been caught red handed in the act of burning down a warehouse belonging to a rival of Helmsley's by two of Melina's officers there was very little she could do to try and save him. He'd been lucky to only get a five year sentence, which Melina had been able to prematurely end at four and a half by pulling some strings. Ronda had no particular affection for the woman, but she did know that she personally owed Melina for that.

Then there was the fact that Melina had somehow successfully buried any evidence on Helmsley before the FBI had showed up in Warren City and started digging. She'd had to quit her job as sheriff and end her relationship with Seth Rollins, who was one of Helmsley's inner circle, but they'd all stayed out of jail. Maybe that was what this was going to be about; the favours being called in somehow?

"Hello Melina," Ronda smiled then leaned in for the polite exchange of pecks on the cheek. She was starting to get used to gestures like that, which she would have rather avoided. "How have you been? Haven't seen you since you quit the police."

Another woman approached them and stood beside Melina, smiling a greeting at Ronda and Shane prior to being introduced. The new arrival was younger than Melina and possibly younger than Ronda also. She had long black hair and a dark skin tone, possibly Mexican if Ronda had to guess. What she found most noticeable was that the woman could only be five feet tall at the most. It pained her to think it, but the woman was damn sure attractive. It made Ronda instinctively want to dislike her.

"Ronda, Shane, allow me introduce a friend of mine, Thea Trinidad."

Greetings were exchanged and Thea added her congratulations on the opening of the casino.

"Ronda, we were hoping to sit down with you and discuss a uh... business proposition," Melina said.

Slightly raising an eyebrow, Ronda added sarcasm to her question, "'A uh... business proposition?' What's that supposed to mean?"

"Sit down with us and we'll tell you, won't we?" Thea replied. There was a slight bite in her tone that no one outside of Ronda's family had used with her since she'd left the army, mainly for the simple reason that no one dared.

"Go ahead," Shane said lightly, noting the slightly taken aback look on his girlfriend's face. "I'll go get myself a drink. I recognise a few familiar face-lifts, so I'm sure I can find someone to talk to." He pecked Ronda on the cheek and left her to it.

"Okay," Ronda decided, studying Thea with interest. "Your smart mouth bought you the chance to talk. Speak to me like that again..." She let the look in her eyes complete the threat. "Follow me."

As she lead them out of the conference room and towards an office that would be perfect for a private conversation, Ronda wondered what kind of business proposition an ex sheriff and a friend of an ex sheriff could possibly have to make to her. What did they think would interest one of the higher ups of such a powerful and wealthy business? There was only one way to find out.

Pushing the office door open and walking in, she saw one of the casino's staff members sitting at the desk, in the middle of a phone call. Ronda had no idea of his name, so she simply gestured to the open door and ordered, "Out. I need the room."

"I'll call you back," the man said into the phone, so quickly that whoever was on the other end probably hadn't been able to understand. "It's all yours, Ms. Helmsley." He stood and hurried out of the room. Ronda didn't dignify him with a response. Melina had been last of the three to enter, so she was best placed to push the door closed behind him. Meanwhile, Ronda took the seat behind the desk and gestured for her visitors to be seated in front of her.

"I should be out there celebrating with my family right now. Instead I'm sitting here, so why don't you get to the point and tell me what this is all about?"

A smile broke out on Melina's face as he took her seat. "It's kind of about that actually."

"About what?" Ronda narrowed her eyes.

"The way you talk to people. You're no businesswoman. You're no casino manager. I know enough about you to know that this change in the way your family make their money must bore you."

"Very perceptive," Ronda grunted. "And you're going to fix that somehow, are you?"

"We're going to make you an offer that would do exactly that." Thea said.

"Who the hell are you anyway?" Ronda demanded, bordering on aggressive.

"A business associate of Melina's. We're starting up a new venture together, but we need a third partner."

It was almost reluctantly that Ronda admitted to herself that she was intrigued by this unexpected turn of events. "Cut to the chase, Thea. I might be no politician, but I'm also no idiot. I can tell that Melina must have told you what she knows about me, which is a big risk on her part. If things went wrong here today, she knows what the consequences might be for her. That must mean that she's almost certain I'll want a part of this new venture. So, cut the shit and tell me what kind of business are we talking about here?"

Thea flashed her brilliant smile again. "Straight to the point; not that I expected otherwise. Okay Ronda, let's get into it. I have a contact who is able to get freelance work, contracts, which pays big, and I do mean big, money. We're talking about kidnapping and assassination. From what I hear about your past record with Helmsley and your military background, you seem to be a perfect fit to complete the three person team I want to put together."

Inside, Ronda was buzzing. The idea sounded perfect to her. The money was no consideration for her; it was the chance to get back out there doing the things she enjoyed that had piqued her interest. The jobs would presumably be relatively short too, a week or so at a time she imagined, and they were also likely not to be too frequent, which would allow her to keep up with Helmsley business too. The only doubt really was in trusting Melina and even more so Thea, who she knew nothing about. Again though, she couldn't imagine how it could be a setup. Melina knew perfectly well that if she did something like that and got her sent to jail then Hunter would make sure it was the last thing she did, and she'd be taking Thea with her. The decision was inevitable before Ronda made it.

"Alright, I'm interested. I know about Melina, obviously, but what about you, Thea? What's your background?"

"Similar enough to yours for our purposes."

It was obvious that was the only answer Ronda was going to get. She could see military in Thea's demeanor and here it in the way she spoke. "And I'm also going to be wasting my time if I ask who your contact is, am I right?"

"For now, yes. Melina doesn't know that either. However, my contact has said that they will be willing to meet with you both if we successfully complete the first contract they give us. Of course, I consider that to be a when, not an if."

Nodding, Ronda said, "Alright. I can't just walk away from this place though. My uncle has just given my boyfriend and I the responsibility of managing this place, so I can't be away on the other side of the world half the time. Nor do I want to be, honestly. How frequent are these contracts going to be?"

"Not frequent," Thea assured her. "One every couple, three months, something like that I'd imagine. Does that work for you?"

"Yeah," Ronda smiled for the first time. "Okay, I'm in. I assume you have the first contract already?"

"My contact does. I don't have details as I haven't been able to go back and say that I have you on-board and my team is ready. I'll do that tonight and get in touch."

Ronda nodded and stood up, bringing the discussion to a close.

"You've not asked about the money," Melina pointed out, surprised.

"I assume we'll be splitting it equally, three ways?" Ronda asked.

"Absolutely," Thea nodded. "I've worked out a deal with my contact..."

Ronda held up a hand to silence her. "I'm not really interested. You both know you didn't approach me because I need the money. Look at this fucking place, for a start. Just pay me my third. Whatever. I know neither of you would be stupid enough to try and fuck me over."

Ronda's two visitors stood and shook hands with her. Going into business with Melina Perez, she thought. Who would ever have imagined that?

"Oh!" Thea exclaimed. "I almost forgot. My contact is also in the business of information. They passed some on to me, and I decided to take action on it. Let's say a sign of good faith from me, and a demonstration of what I can do."

Looking confused, Ronda asked, "What are you talking about?"

"The way I hear it, before you shut down your lab, someone was stealing from you. I can give that person to you. I'll call you tomorrow and let you know when and where."

Failing to discover the identity of the person who'd had the nerve to steal meth from the Helmsley lab was something that had seriously pissed Ronda off for a long time. Now, out of the blue, she was being promised the culprit being served to her on a silver platter. Cracking her knuckles, she began to think of ways in which she could make whoever it was wish they'd never even heard the name Helmsley, before she killed them.

"You know I'm going to kill them, right?"

The brilliant smile appeared again. "Hopefully the first of many we'll do together. I'll call you."


	2. Chapter 2

_Hunter & Stephanie's Mansion_

Looking at the faces of the three people around her, Ronda didn't see much positivity. It was no real surprise; she had just finished telling her boyfriend, aunt and uncle about her encounter with Melina Perez and Thea Trinidad earlier in the night. The timing was definitely not the best, with Hunter having only just assigned her and Shane the responsibility of managing the casino. Then there was the fact that they would inevitably be concerned about her safety, and also about whether the whole thing might be a setup of some kind.

The few hours of celebration at the casino had given her some thinking time to come up with answers to the questions that might be about to come her way. When Shane was first to speak, it surprised her that he was supportive, although she chastised herself for that. Her man always had her best interests at heart; she should never doubt that.

"I know you've been missing the way things used to be," he said, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze, telling her that he had her back on this. "And let's be honest, like her or not, and I can't say I do, Perez always came through for Helmsley. Sure, she was in it for the money, but she _was_ in it. She did a great job of keeping the feds of our backs when they showed up and started snooping around. I see no reason why she would turn on us now, and even if she did, this wouldn't make much sense as a way to sell us out. She'd know that she'd be signing her own death warrant if she tried something like that with Ron anyway. Obviously we don't know who this Thea woman is, but she's promised to deliver whoever it was who was stealing from the lab. I know you're more than capable of taking care of yourself, babe, so I'm okay with it. I say if you want to go for it, go for it. At least do one contract, then if you don't want to work with them again, don't. If it goes well, great."

"Thank you, honey," Ronda smiled, nestling herself even more closely against him on the couch. "That means a lot to me."

The two people on the living room's other couch looked less keen to accept the idea. Hunter sipped at his customary double shot of whisky, then shook his head. "Why, Ronda? You sure don't need the money. I know you don't really like learning how to do business from me, that's why I've given you the casino to run. I hoped it would motivate you to have your own specific area to manage as you saw fit, your own responsibility. Now you want to walk away almost as soon as you get started?"

It was his tone more than the words he used that hurt Ronda. He was hurt and disappointed; she didn't know which of those things made her feel worse.

"I'm not walking away, Uncle Hunter. I'd never do that to you guys or the business. You know that. I'd never leave Shane either. This isn't a full time thing, like I said. A few days, a week maybe, for each contract. And they're not going to come frequently. Most of the time I'll be here and I will be running the casino. I'm looking forward to it, and I meant it when I thanked you for giving me that role and told you what it meant to me. That hasn't changed. I just..."

Words failed her for a moment. Stephanie stepped in to help her out. "You want some 'real' action, is that it?" The air quotes and change in tone that she used made it obvious that she didn't approve of Ronda's desire to continue to involve herself in that kind of thing. Although she had returned to Warren City after the ordeal that Nicole Reigns and Scott Steiner had put her through, and had killed Dwayne Johnson, Stephanie wasn't the same woman she had been before. Talk about the old days and about violence were things that she tried to avoid whenever possible. "Violence is something that should be used when absolutely necessary, not something to go looking for, or to enjoy. Anyway, we don't do that kind of thing anymore. We're a legitimate business now."

"I'm not doing it for Helmsley," Ronda protested. "Some of these contracts might not even be in this country for all I know. And it's not like I'm just looking for violence..."

Stephanie leaned forward and raised her voice in anger. "Not looking for violence? What is it about the word assassination that doesn't sound violent to you?"

"Steph," Hunter cautioned, putting a hand on his wife's knee. "Don't yell at her; that's not fair."

"I don't like it, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise," Stephanie huffed. "Who gives a shit what I think though, right? You'll end up agreeing to it, and off she'll go. I might as well just keep my mouth shut."

"I haven't agreed to anything," Hunter said, a harsh edge creeping into his voice. Stephanie just gave a derogatory grunt, implying that she knew it was a matter of time before he did exactly that.

Ronda had also leaned forward now and had her head in her hands. "Please don't argue with each other over this. You know that's not what I want." She lifted her head and looked her aunt in the eyes. It was time to put her point of view across clearly, whilst being careful not to be disrespectful. "Aunt Steph, do you think I don't know it's not exactly normal that I enjoy doing things like this? I can't help that. I killed for our country, I killed for our business. I killed three people in that warehouse that night to save you. I'm good at it. I often enjoy it. If you don't like that, I don't know what to say to you. You raised me."

Stephanie didn't look pleased, but Ronda saw that she realised that her points were valid, particularly the last one. It was too late after years of violence to expect her not to be involved in it now.

"I already said what I think," Shane reminded them. "I'm behind it."

"This isn't a vote," Hunter growled at him, taking control of the situation as only he could.

It was at times like that, that Shane knew he had to back off a bit. He was Ronda's boyfriend, but in Hunter's mind that still put him down the pecking order as far as caring for her was concerned. She was Hunter's baby girl, every bit as much as she would have been if she was his own born daughter.

Looking at Ronda, Hunter asked, "You really want to do this thing? And you trust the people you'll be working with?"

"Yes, Uncle Hunter, I want to do it. I really want to do it. I don't completely trust them, no. Not yet. How could I? I've only spent a few minutes with Thea. Trust has to be built up though; I need to trust her to some extent so that I can work with her and build up real trust. I don't need to be telling you these things, you know them as well I do. I'll take one contract and see how that goes, if you're okay with it?"

Hunter looked at Shane rather than answering her question. "And you're okay with taking on the casino by yourself when she's away?"

"Absolutely," Shane nodded.

"And Ronda, when you're not on one of these contracts, I expect your full attention and focus to be on the casino and on Helmsley business. Am I clear on that?"

"Yes. I won't let you down. I am trying my best to learn, you know that."

"I know, sweetheart. Come here."

With a sullen expression on her face, Stephanie watched Hunter stand up and embrace Ronda when she joined him. It was typical, she thought, that Ronda got her own way with Hunter. It was all too easy for her. She was the typical daddy's girl and he was the typical 'father' of a daddy's girl - wrapped around her little finger. It really got under Stephanie's skin at times. If anything it had been getting worse in the past year too, with Hunter spending so much of his time trying to mentor the heiress that he was so proud of.

"You just make sure you don't get hurt, okay?" Hunter was telling Ronda.

"Yeah, don't get yourself killed," Stephanie added, managing to keep the ice out of her voice.

* * *

As agreed, Ronda had received a call the next morning from Thea Trinidad, who had given her a location to meet her and the so far nameless person who was apparently the one who had been stealing from Helmsley's lab. Extracting the truth from this person wasn't going to be difficult. It was something that she considered herself to be quite good at. Convincing the person that you really were going to hurt them was the main thing, and that certainly wasn't going to be an issue. Describing what was to come as hurting them would be an understatement. As they'd worked for Helmsley, they would know full well what she was capable of.

The address was an auto repair shop in one of the rougher areas of the city. Smiling, Ronda remembered Shane once referring to the neighborhood as a place where even the dogs walked around carrying knives. As she approached the repair shop, which looked like it had been out of business for some time, she saw a white van which had seen better days parked on the small lot out front.

When Ronda parked her Helmsley trademark black SUV beside the van, she saw Thea Trinidad climb out of the driver's side. She was dressed all in black, including a beanie hat and leather gloves.

"You look the part," Ronda said in place of a greeting as she got out of the SUV.

Thea looked her over, taking in the regular blue jeans and Warren City Warriors T-Shirt, which she'd cut the sleeves off. "Not bad yourself. I spoke with my contact this morning. We should get our first contract in the next few days. That going to be a problem?"

"No. Not a problem. Where's my thief?"

"Inside," Thea said as she reached back into the van to get something from on the passenger seat, meaning inside the repair shop. She turned and offered the item that she'd retrieved to Ronda, handle first, smiling as she did so. "Please, be my guest."

With a smile of her own that bordered on sadistic, Ronda took the baseball bat and tested its weight in her hand. "I think I'm going to like working with you. Lead the way."


	3. Chapter 3

What had been most infuriating about the thefts from the Helmsley lab, as far as Ronda was concerned, was that despite having everyone who worked in the lab followed, no evidence had been found to incriminate anyone. This was most likely because the lab had needed to be closed quite soon after the the thefts had started. Whoever the culprit was wouldn't have had time to make much money from their underhanded dealings, but that wasn't the point. The point was that no one stole from Helmsley and lived to tell the tale.

Thea lead Ronda into the repair shop and flicked on the lights, which blinked slowly into action while Ronda closed the door behind them.

"Son of a bitch!" she exclaimed when she recognised the man who was chained up by his wrists, arms above his head, hanging from a high metal bar with his feet several inches from the floor. The chain was attached to some kind of pulley system that must have remained from when the repair shop was in business. His shoulders looked like they were being wrenched out of their sockets. There was a thick piece of cloth tied in his mouth to keep him quiet; although he did start attempting to cry out in panic when he saw Ronda and the bat that she was carrying.

"You got him here and strung him up like that by yourself?" Ronda asked Thea, a hint of respect in her voice.

"Us little people can pull our weight too," Thea said. There was humour in her sarcasm.

Swinging the bat idly in her left hand, Ronda walked over to him. Stopping in front of him, she looked him in the eyes, her own expression one of utter distaste. "Mike Mizanin. Of all the people. My uncle helped to pay for your wedding to that dumbass French bitch, whatever her name is. I was at that fucking wedding. The Helmsley family were never anything but good to you 'Miz', and you repay us by stealing from us?"

Miz had already started desperately writing around as best he could and moaning into the cloth.

"Get that out of his mouth," Ronda said to Thea, who was casually standing nearby with her arms folded across her chest. Obliging, she walked over, reached up on tip-toes, untied the knot behind Miz's head and pulled the cloth out of his mouth.

"No, Ronda," he gasped out, panic stricken. "This is all a mistake. I didn't steal anything..."

Ronda gripped her bat with both hands and swung as hard as she could, connecting with his stomach with a sickening thud and driving the air out of him.

"My friend here seems to think that you did. I know for a fact that _someone_ was stealing from the lab. You know, the lab that you worked in? Let's try again, shall we? Did you steal any meth from us, yes or no?"

"No," Miz grunted, and the had a coughing fit, bringing up some blood.

"Seems like he's determined to deny it," Ronda said to Thea, using the statement as a question regarding what evidence of guilt she had.

"Kind of a shame for him that he sold some of what he stole to someone who's on good terms with my contact then, isn't it? I can prove it, too." Looking at Miz, she advised, "I'd just tell her the truth, asshole. We're in no rush, and no one's going to find you here."

"Fuck you," Miz hissed at her.

Ronda swung the bat again, this time hitting him in the left side, snapping several ribs. Over his agonised howls, Ronda calmly told him, "That's not the right way to speak to a woman. Now, before I inquire about this proof that she mentioned, I'm going to ask you again: Did you steal any meth from the Helmsley lab?"

"Ronda... Please..."

The bat thundered into his stomach again. "It was a fucking yes or no answer!" Ronda screamed at him.

"Maybe this will help to clear it up," Thea chimed in, reaching into one of the pockets of her jeans. She walked over to Ronda while unfolding the item that she'd pulled out, then handed it to her.

Ronda took it and realised that it was a print out of a photograph. The shot had been taken at night, but thanks to street lighting it was still clear enough. It showed Miz sitting in his car, passing a smallish bag of meth to someone who was standing at the driver's side window. Miz's unnamed customer had a wad of cash in his other hand. Whoever had snapped the picture had done so at just the right time. Any doubts Ronda might have had about Thea and her mysterious contact disappeared. Miz was guilty as charged. The only puzzling thing to Ronda was why someone had been there to take a picture of what was essentially a very small time drug deal. Raising an inquisitive eyebrow, she asked Thea, "Someone just happened to be there to take this?"

"My contact is in the business of information, Ronda, not buying small ass quantities of meth from dickheads. The identity of someone selling Helmsley meth on the side could have been a valuable commodity, or as it has proved to be, useful for a sign of good faith."

"Smooth," Ronda admitted. Her expression hardened as she turned her attention back to Miz, who seemed to be on the point of losing consciousness from the pain he was in. His writhing had stopped and his head was drooped to the point where his chin was almost touching his chest.

Ronda helped him to raise it by lifting his chin with the end of the baseball bat, and then held it in place for him as she showed him the picture. "I don't know about you, but that looks to me like you're selling meth to someone?"

"Needed money," Miz managed to pathetically croak out.

Ronda took a second or two, nodding to herself as she took in the admission of guilt and what it meant. Whoever contact was, they were legit, and so was Thea Trinidad. Turning to her new partner, she asked, "You know who Cody Rhodes is, right?"

"Sure. He's the Warriors' First Baseman. Your favorite player?"

Grinning, Ronda took a few steps backwards and then approached Miz again as she made like she was stepping up to the plate in a baseball game. She provided her own commentary as she did so. "Cody Rhodes will come forward to open the third inning. No score to this point."

Miz started writhing again and gasping out pleas for his life while Ronda took a couple of practice swings. Neither one of his captors paid him the least bit of attention.

Chuckling at the spectacle and knowing what Ronda was going to do, Thea decided to join in and take over the commentary duties. "First pitch coming..."

Ronda swung as hard as she could, connecting with Miz's right cheek bone and across the bridge of his nose, completely demolishing his face and mercifully knocking him out cold.

"Fast ball, swung on, and this is going a long way out to left field! The fielder's back on the warning track, but forget about it! It's a home run!"

Thea's commentary had made Ronda smile, but it quickly vanished and she said, "Alright, get him down. Let's finish this and get out of here."

"You got it." Thea walked over to the where the chains were secured and released them, sending Miz crashing unceremoniously to the floor, landing in a crumpled heap. Ronda prodded at him with her foot to get his head into a more convenient position for what was to come next. In movies this would have the moment where Ronda would have delivered some kind of smart remark to her victim before finishing him off. Instead, she simply asked Thea, "Ever see a skull get smashed in before?"

"Yep."

"Good. Don't want you getting all queasy on me." With that, Ronda raised the bat high in the air above her head and brought it hammering down onto the side of Miz's head. There was no way the damp crunching sound could be confused for anything other than a fatal blow. The blood that began pouring out onto the concrete was further evidence.

"I think we're done here," Thea said, approaching Ronda. She formed a strange shape with her gloved hand. It was a gesture that Ronda had never seen before, although it was clearly a sign of camaraderie and respect.

"What's that?" she asked, genuinely interested.

"The wolf's head," Thea said simply, offering no further explanation of why she had decided to use it. Ronda formed the wolf's head herself and Thea touched her fingers to Ronda's; the two wolf's snouts connecting. "First successful operation of many, Ronda. We just need to get rid of the body now. I have somewhere in mind."

"Forget that," Ronda said. "I'll call one of my people and have him do it. He's good at that kind of thing."

"He won't have a problem with it being one of your own?"

Ronda snorted dismissively at that. "That sack of shit stopped being one of our own the first time he took meth out of our lab."

"Then let's go."

Thea lead the way out of the repair shop. When they were back out in the lot, she opened her van's driver's side door and then turned to Ronda. "I'll be in touch when I get the info on the first contract. I'm looking forward to working with you Ronda." She flashed the smile that Ronda was already getting used to seeing. "Actually, I'm looking forward to it a lot, after today."

"Yeah, me too," Ronda nodded. The most remarkable thing as far as she was concerned was that it was actually true.


	4. Chapter 4

_Marina Heights Casino_

Satisfied with her work earlier in the day, Ronda was actually enjoying working the late shift at the casino, which had been renamed to Marina Heights to bear the same name as the hotel next door. Plans were in place to join the two buildings with a sky bridge in order to allow guests to move between them more efficiently and conveniently. The fact that Hunter had trusted her and Shane to run the casino was something that they were both proud of, but it was also something of a double edged sword as they now saw a lot less of each other because of the necessity of working different shifts.

A few minutes earlier, she had walked back into her office after conducting a walk around the casino floor. Hunter had been clear in his instruction that she must show her face often to the clients and be very welcoming and accommodating of them, especially the richer ones. The more money they had, the more they needed to be encouraged to come to Marina Heights and lose some of it to the house. Looking at it that way helped Ronda to get through doing something that wasn't in her skill set by any means. Both Shane and Hunter were often keen to tell her that she was getting better at diplomacy. How much of that was truth and how much of it was just trying to give her some confidence in her abilities, she wasn't quite sure.

"I'd like to speak to the manager please," a familiar voice said as the door to her office was pushed open.

"Sorry," Ronda chuckled, turning away from her computer screen to look at her visitor. "I'm busy right now. Can you come back later?"

"How's it going?" Hunter asked, dropping the play acting. He walked over and took a seat in front of her desk.

"Yeah, good. No dramas tonight so far. How's your day been?"

"Meetings, mainly. Nothing special." Although he'd relaxed into the chair, his expression grew more serious. "So, tell me what happened earlier with this Thea Trinidad character. Did she come up with our thief?"

Ronda grimaced at the mention of it. "Yeah, she did. It was Mike Mizanin, of all people."

"Son of a bitch," Hunter groaned. "After everything I did for that guy, he stole from me? Us, I mean. Did you get a confession out of him?"

"Of course." Ronda sounded a little indignant at the question, as if there was no way she could have failed to do so. "He tried to deny it to start with, but Thea had a photo that she got from her contact. Miz was selling meth to some asshole out of his car window. I showed it to him and he admitted that he did it because he needed money. When I heard that I caved his head in with a baseball bat. Rollins will have gotten rid of the body by now."

"Wait a minute," Hunter said, holding up a hand to stop her from saying anything more. "Back up and tell me about this in more detail. Thea had a photo of him selling meth? That seems very convenient to me. Didn't you ask her how her contact happened to have someone there to take a picture?"

"She said that Miz made the mistake of selling what he stole to someone who the contact worked with, or something. They realised the identity of someone stealing from Helmsley could be useful and valuable information, so they made sure to get a picture of it going down. I have to say, it's starting to really piss me off not knowing who this contact is."

"That makes two of us," Hunter snapped, standing up and beginning to pace around the office. "I've about had my fill of hearing about some fucking nameless contact. In fact, fuck it. This thing with you working with them isn't happening until we know who this 'contact' is. They want to work with you, they can stop all this cloak and dagger bullshit and they can come talk to me about it face to face."

Hunter was the only person whose anger made Ronda uneasy, probably mostly due to the fact that he was more of a parent to her than a superior. "They're probably not going to do that," she pointed out, a little timidly.

"Then it's not going to fucking happen," he insisted. "I'm not having you wander off halfway across the world on some mission for fuck knows who, with no idea if we can even trust them. This whole thing with Miz doesn't sit right with me either. There are too many unanswered questions. You should have questioned him and Thea more before you killed him."

"He told me he did it for money," Ronda protested. "It's not like I just walked in there and killed him."

Hunter stopped pacing and glared at her. "And how did Thea even get him to wherever the hell you met her? Did she set him up and lure him there? Lift him from his home? What?"

Ronda closed her eyes and sighed. "I didn't ask her that."

"For fuck's sake, Ronda," Hunter sighed. Seemingly incapable of screaming at her for the error, he instead rubbed his face in frustration. "What a fucking mess. There's so much more we should have found out before, if, we decided to kill him."

"We? You mean I?" Ronda said. She felt ashamed by the fact that her uncle was angry with her, and even more ashamed that he was right to be. She now realised that she hadn't dealt with the situation well at all. All she had really done was take everything Thea had said at face value, and then reacted to two mumbled words which sounded like a confession by beating her former employee to death.

"Alright then, yes. I mean you," Hunter was saying, harshness creeping into his voice. "You fucked up on this one, big time. We can't change it now; he's dead. But you need to start thinking before you act. I've been trying to get that through to you for the longest time, yet we don't to be getting anywhere, do we?"

"I'm sorry," Ronda mumbled, looking down at her desk. "I know I fucked up. I get it. What do we do from here?"

After taking a moment to compose himself, Hunter asked, "Be honest with me. Do you still want to go through with this idea of working with them on these contracts?"

Without hesitating, Ronda looked up and said, "Yes. I do."

"Then this is how it's going to go from here. You're going to give me Thea's number. I'm going to call her and tell her that she and her contact will have to meet me at the office next door Friday afternoon, or the whole thing is off. They approached you, so we're not going to just go along with things how they want them to be. That's not how people deal with Helmsley. They want to work with my niece? They want to work with my second in command? They can give me some god damn specifics on what's going on first, or they can forget it. You got a problem with that?"

Aside from not wanting to further anger him, Ronda also knew that again, he was right. The arrangement as Thea had proposed it was incredibly one sided, and not in favour of her or Helmsley. Thea and her contact were the ones who wanted her to work for them, not the other way around, regardless of whether she was keen to get involved. She knew better than to try and tell Hunter that his course of action risked making it look like he was babysitting her. It was too late for that now; he would just tell her that she should have handled it better herself and he wouldn't have had to step in. In any event, he was only looking out for her, which was what he'd always done since her father had been killed.

"No, Uncle Hunter. No problem problem with that. I know you're mad and I can see why, but most of all I know you're just looking out for me. And I appreciate that more than you can ever know."

"Come here," Hunter said, feeling touched by her words. Even without them, he could never stay angry with Ronda for long. He knew that not even Stephanie fully understood the fatherly bond that he felt for Ronda, and she never would. There was no way she could do, as she didn't know the truth. No one who was alive did, other than him.

Ronda walked around her desk and they embraced each other. _Whoever this contact is_ , Hunter thought, _they better be damn convincing that they can be trusted and that they can keep my girl safe_.


	5. Chapter 5

With an irritated expression on his face, Hunter looked up from the financial report that he was to read through and fixed his attention on Ronda, who was pacing around his office. It was very distracting, and his patience was getting close to its limit. "You can hover around all you want, Ronda. It's only going to be me in this meeting, and that's an end to it. I will be making the decision on whether you're working with this person, and my decision will be final."

"I know," Ronda said, stopping her pacing and standing with her hands on her hips. "You already told me that. I'm going nowhere until I at least see who it is. They should have been here by now anyway. It's hardly my fault they're late."

Right on cue, the phone on Hunter's desk started to ring. He pointedly raised an eyebrow at her and then picked up the phone. The ring tone had already told him that it was his receptionist calling through from the outer office. "Yes, Dana?"

"The visitors you were expecting are here, Mr Helmsley."

"Show them in."

"Yes, sir."

Hunter used the few moments before his door opened to put the report that he was reading back in his in-tray, while Ronda stood their waiting to see who it was. It almost made him smile to think that it looked like she was ready to pounce on whoever came through the door and start giving them a kicking.

He wasn't far from being correct. The smoke and mirrors, added to waiting in Hunter's office had her fragile temper close to boiling over. When the door opened and Dana lead the two visitors in, Ronda's mouth dropped open for a second. The last thing she had expected was for the contact to be someone she'd dealt with in the past. "You?" she exclaimed, as if the very idea was ridiculous.

"Hello Ronda," Laura Molinaro said, smiling in satisfaction at the surprise her entrance had generated.

"I thought you ran some fucking transport company?" Ronda blurted out.

"I do. In the same way that you used to run a 'fucking' food processing plant."

"Wait a minute," Hunter said authoritatively. He was now standing behind his desk. "You two know each other? Is somebody going to bother with introductions here or not?"

The taller of his two guests, who was clearly the mysterious contact walked over and offered her hand. "Laura Molinaro. This is Thea Trinidad."

"Hunter Helmsley." He accepted a handshake from Laura and then one from Thea, studying the two women as he did so. Bother were expensively dressed in business suits. They also had similar dark skin tones and long black hair. The only substantial difference was in their heights. Even so, he found himself wondering if maybe they were related somehow. He recognised Laura's name from what Ronda had told her about her dealings with Dwayne Johnson, before Stephanie had killed him.

"Take a seat, ladies," he offered gesturing towards the chairs in front of his desk. "Drinks?"

"I'll leave you to it then," Ronda said, sounding as put out as she felt at not being welcome to take part in the meeting. The door slammed closed behind her, causing Hunter to grimace for a second.

A small smile came to Laura's face. "A real hot head, that one. I'll take a black coffee, no sugar, as strong as you can get it."

"Coffee is good for me too," Thea said.

Hunter noticed that they both sounded the same too. There was no mistaking a New York accent. After calling through to Dana and ordering the coffee to be brought in he got the meeting underway, being direct but not overly abrupt, something which he'd been trying to teach Ronda to no avail for the longest period of time. "You both know why we're here today. You, Laura, want to use my niece, who also happens to be my second in command, to carry out contracts for you. I'm not against it outright, or we wouldn't be sitting here, but there a questions that I want answers to first. Your contracts or your interests don't matter to me. All I'm interested in is making sure that Ronda's safe, both from physical harm and from ending up in jail."

"Understandable," Laura replied easily. "And I strongly suspected we'd need to talk before this arrangement could be finalised. Let me assure you that I've been in this line of work for six years and I've never had anyone arrested on one of my operations. I'm careful in vetting what I take on and what I pass up. My reputation in this line of work is second to none. You've heard of the Black Panther, of course."

"Of course," Hunter nodded, sounding a bit more impressed than he would have liked. "That's you? I thought it was a guy, an assassin?"

"So does everyone else. And that shows you how good I am at my job. I'm not a guy, obviously, and I've never killed anyone myself. The killings attributed to the Black Panther were organised by me and my previous team. I'm now moving into kidnapping for ransom too."

The office door opened and Dana walked in carrying a large tray with coffee, sugar, cream and three cups. The discussion stopped while she served drinks to everyone's liking and then left.

"You know what I'm going to say next," Hunter said. "If you're so great at protecting your people, why do you need a new team. What happened to the old one?"

"They got greedy, reckless. They took a contract on that I wasn't a party to. In fact I'd previously turned it down. One of them got shot and killed, the other two arrested. They know better than to say anything about my identity, of course. As for a guarantee regarding Ronda's physical safety, I think she's more than capable of looking after herself. Neither of us are stupid, Hunter. We both know it's a dangerous line of work. She's done nothing but dangerous work for you since she came back from the army."

She hadn't finished, but Hunter cut her off. "Don't try and act like you know what Ronda does for my business or our family."

Laura calmly sipped her coffee before offering a smile. "But I do know. Information is a tool of my trade, Hunter. I know all about the Helmsley empire and its employees. Please don' take that as a threat; it's merely a statement of fact. If I may be bold, can I ask that you ask Thea the questions you want to ask her, then you and I can talk further in private?"

Hunter felt himself bristling at that. No one came into his office and told him how he was going to conduct the meeting that he'd arranged. "I've got questions for both of you," he said, allowing an edge to creep into his voice. "We can start with you, Thea. I want to know more about what happened on the day that you and Ronda killed Mike Mizanin. While you're at it you can tell me how you got him to the location where you met her, and you can tell me more about the evidence you showed to her, because from where I'm sitting it looks like you knew full well how Ronda would act and you used that to suit your own ends."

Until now, Thea had been listening to the conversation with an almost relaxed expression on her face while sipping from her cup of coffee. Hunter hadn't missed the message that she was trying to send: she was a very confident and assured person. It was not a bad quality to have in the line of work that was being discussed.

"I didn't use Ronda at all," she began calmly. "Laura found out the identity of the thief from one of her sources who bought some meth from him. It was Helmsley meth. There was no mistaking it; yours had that blue tint to it that no one else's had. So we planned to have the source buy some more meth and we had a picture taken of the deal going down. I actually took the picture myself."

"I want to see it," Hunter said. His face had darkened in anger as he contemplated the betrayal by someone who he had considered to be a loyal employee, and almost a friend.

Reaching into a pocket of her suit jacket, Laura said, "I have it right here on my phone. You can zoom in and clearly make out that it's Helmsley meth he's selling."

Hunter waited for her to find the picture and pass the phone across the desk to him. Sure enough, the picture undoubtedly showed Mike Mizanin passing a small bag of meth to someone out of his car window. Tapping the phone's screen zoomed in on the picture and there was the blue tint to the meth; Helmsley's signature.

"This could have been Photoshopped," he said, looking Laura right in the eye. If there was any sign of deception, he backed himself to pick up on it.

"It could have been," she conceded evenly. "It hasn't, but it could have been. Anything anyone ever tells you could be untrue. I know that you know someone was stealing from you. I found out who it was and delivered them to you. If Ronda failed to get a full or detailed confession before she killed him, that's not my fault."

Hunter had to admit that was true. Ronda could have saved all of these doubts one way or the other by questioning Mizanin in detail before killing him, if killing him was even necessary. There were other outstanding questions regarding that day at the auto repair shop; questions that only Thea could answer. After giving a moment of consideration to what Laura had said and what he's read from her expression, Hunter decided that he was leaning towards believing her, and turned his attention to Thea.

"Ronda also didn't question you as much as I would have done, Thea. For a start I want to know how Miz ended up in that repair shop. Did you lure him there, take him there, what?"

"I took him there," Thea said with a hint of pride in her voice. "I broke into his house while he was out and waited for him to come home. If his wife showed up first or if they both came together I was going to have to lift her too, but I wouldn't have harmed her. That's not good business. Anyway, it wasn't necessary as he came home first, alone. I'd hidden myself in a utility room off the kitchen. I heard him walk in there so I crept up on him and subdued him with a rag soaked in chloroform. Don't think that because I'm short I can't handle myself. If I came at you and caught you unaware, Hunter, I'd put you down. Trust me. Your guy Miz wasn't a problem. So, he was passed out in the kitchen. I'd brought some cable ties with me, which I used to tie him up. Then I took a cloth out of the utility closet and gagged him. When that was done I went and fetched my van, pulled it up to the house, dragged him into the back of it, and we were away. The whole thing took me a couple of minutes at the most."

The coffee in front of Hunter sat forgotten about. He'd been engrossed in Thea's story. Again, there was nothing he could detect that told him she wasn't telling the truth. As he was a good judge of character and a good reader of people, he placed a lot of faith in his instinct to believe his two guests. "Trust me, you wouldn't have a chance if you tried that with me," he assured Thea as a matter of pride. "Assuming I believe that story, you do seem to know what you're doing though. And if these contracts we're talking about are going to involve kidnapping, I can see why you're on the team. You have experience of that kind of thing? Before Miz, I mean."

"I do," she nodded. "I was on a special unit when I was serving our country. I can't say any more for obvious reasons. Have no fear though, I'm the real deal. So is Ronda, and so is Perez. We all have our own talents and we'll make a good team."

"That's a good sales pitch," Hunter said, remembering his coffee and taking a sip.

By that point Laura had finished her own drink. Setting the empty cup on his desk, she said, "Unless you have more questions for Thea, I suggest we continue this discussion in private."

"I have one more question," he said, fixing his gaze squarely on Thea. "Would you give up your life for Ronda if the situation arose?"

Without hesitating, she said, "No. And I wouldn't expect her to give up hers for me either if the roles were reversed. Having said that, we'll be a team. We'll do everything we can to keep ourselves safe and to complete the mission we're given."

"Good answer," Hunter nodded, respecting the honesty of it. "If you'd have said yes I'd have called bullshit. Very well, Thea, you can step out. Thank you for coming."

Thea down her drink and set the cup beside Laura's. Standing, she extended her hand and said, "You're welcome. And it was nice to meet you."

"Bullshit," Hunter said, offering a slight smile as she accepted the handshake. He found himself taking a liking to the feisty young woman.

Laura waited until Thea had left the office and quietly closed the door behind her before carrying on the conversation. "As you can see, I have competent people on the team, to say the least. Ronda will fit in perfectly. Although she's hot headed, she's been in the army. She knows how to focus when she's on an operation. I have no doubts about her, and I hope that now you have a lot less doubts about us. One final thing I'd like to say, one of things I wanted to say in private, was that not too long ago I had to make a choice, Hunter."

Feeling like she was waiting for him to ask, and not having a clue what she was talking about, Hunter raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Dwayne Johnson called me, telling me that he'd had a call from your wife, who claimed that she was going to deliver Ronda to him so that he could kill her. She'd told him a story about leaving you after a huge row over Ronda and the fact that you put her above your wife and your marriage, that kind of thing. As he knew my real line of work, as you now do also, he wanted my advice on whether he should trust your wife or not. I could have told him no, which would have almost certainly meant that both Stephanie and Ronda ended up dead. Or I could have told him that I'd heard things weren't going well in your marriage and that divorce had been on the cards for some time, and that she should trust Stephanie. That's what I did. I chose to potentially do future business with Helmsley, rather than with the Johnson/Reigns family."

"Is that a fact?" Hunter asked, genuinely surprised. It had always seemed a little strange that Johnson had been so keen to trust what Stephanie had told him. "The obvious thing I have to ask is why? You were on good terms with that son of a bitch. Why choose Helmsley over a business relationship you already had?"

"Simple. That family didn't do good business. They took things too personally. The Helmsley situation wasn't the first. I know you're hardly innocent. I know you killed Roman Reigns. But Dwayne Johnson came here with the express intent of getting revenge. There's no place for that in business. I considered it to be better for Helmsley to continue to run Warren City, and I already had the idea of recruiting Ronda. A win win situation for me, unless you still plan on refusing to let her work for me?"

Hunter had to acknowledge the reality that he was dealing with a very powerful woman. The fact that she could have easily chosen to take a path which would have likely ended with Stephanie and Ronda dead was something that he had a hard time dealing with. This was someone he wanted to be allied to, not on the bad side of. It was best for all involved. Laura wanted, maybe even needed Ronda. Ronda wanted to be a part of it, and her safety seemed to be as assured as it realistically could be. Molinaro would owe him for granting his position. A potential future favour to call in with her was something that could be of real value.

"Alright," he decided. "You can use Ronda on your team. For now I'm only agreeing to one contract. I'm going to talk with her about it in great detail when she gets back and then make a decision regarding her taking others. Fair enough?"

"Fair enough," Laura said with a satisfied smile. "I think all parties will find the arrangement beneficial."

The meeting was over. They both stood, shook hands and exchanged pleasantries. Laura headed for the door, but stopped halfway there and turned to face Hunter. "One more thing."

"What's that?"

"In my experience it's not a good idea to keep things secret from your family. They have a nasty habit of coming out at the worst moment, and it can be very destructive."

Hunter's expression hardened and his voice grew icy. "What are you talking about?" He suspected he already knew the answer.

"You know what I'm talking about, Hunter. Don't mistake what I'm saying for a threat; I'm not going to say anything. I'm just saying that I think you should. The Helmsley family falling apart wouldn't be good business. I can see it on your face. You've already thought about telling them, haven't you?"

"You have no idea," he conceded with a sigh. There was no point asking how she knew. There was only one way she could know: she'd somehow seen the results of the DNA test. "I've almost done it several times."

Laura's expression softened and her tone became almost sympathetic. "It certainly won't be easy. I don't envy you. I'll see you again, Hunter. Tell your daughter I'll be in touch with her in the near future."


	6. Chapter 6

_ Hunter & Stephanie's mansion _

Spending the rest of the day in the office had essentially been a waste of time for Hunter. Focusing on any kind of work had proved to be impossible because he hadn't been able to stop thinking about the secret that he'd been keeping from his family for so long. For that reason he had decided to throw the towel in half an hour early and head home.

"Hey, I'm home!" he called out as he walked through the mansion's front door and into the huge entrance hallway.

"Hey, you're home early," Stephanie called back. "I'm in the kitchen."

"I'll just go up and change. I'll be down soon."

Hunter headed up to their bedroom, removing his tie and starting to unbutton his shirt as he trudged up the stairs. When he walked into the bedroom his tossed the tie onto the bed, followed by his shirt. Blowing out a big sigh, he caught sight of himself in the large mirror on Stephanie's side of the bedroom. "You look like shit, asshole," he mumbled to the reflection. It was true. His face looked paler than usual and he had worry lines on his forehead. A sure sign of stress.

On the dresser below the mirror there were several framed photographs. All but one of them were of him and Stephanie together; pictures which had been taken years ago. Better times, he thought, looking at their younger faces and their happy, almost carefree smiles. The day's events had left him in a very reflective mood. It had been twenty six years since he'd first started out in the world of business, and what a journey it had been. He'd come up from a poor background to now effectively owning the city in which he'd been born. Was it worth it though? That was the question. How much money and success did a person really need? And what good was any of it if it came at the expense of relationships with friends, family, or even loved ones?

At times he could be stubborn and hard headed. Trying to deny that would only have been lying to himself. Even so, he realised that things were not the same in his marriage, and that it was his fault. It hadn't been the same since Stephanie had been kidnapped, tortured and raped at the hands of Nicole Reigns and Scott Steiner. The horrifying experience had changed Stephanie. Although she repeatedly insisted that she was happy to be back in Warren City with him, he had his doubts about whether that was really true. Even if she had stayed in Barbados the memories would have still always been there. There was no way to change that.

"You caused it to happen," he told the reflection. "You killed Roman Reigns. And you had to make a fucking show of it too, didn't you? You had to control the whole city. You had to react to his lack of respect. And you just had to show yourself to that fucking security camera. You had to rub it in Nicole's face that you killed her husband."

That had been one of the biggest mistakes of his life. Nicole had done what she did to Stephanie because of that security camera feed. It had pushed her over the edge. His wife had been put through a living hell and changed forever because of his rash and egotistical actions. It was something that he couldn't change; that he couldn't take back no matter how badly he wanted to. What he should have done that night was let Ronda take care of business as she had offered. The killing would have been done expertly and with nothing to trace it back to Helmsley.

Stephanie's relationship with Ronda had also changed after her ordeal. The awful jealousy that had been there when they'd first adopted Ronda had resurfaced of late. Although Ronda rarely if ever picked up on it, he most definitely did, and it hurt him deeply. He'd always clung to the hope that the fact that Stephanie wasn't able to carry a baby would have made her more willing to accept their adopted child, but it had never really worked out like that. Maybe there was some truth in what Stephanie said though? Did he really favour Ronda over her? If he did it wasn't intentional, but that didn't mean that it didn't happen. Had he been paying too much attention over the past few months to trying to train Ronda to one day take over the business and not enough to being there for his wife? There it was again: business ahead of loved ones.

Next to the pictures of him and Stephanie there was one of Ronda. It too was many years old. He could remember the day it was taken; the day before she left to report for her first training posting in the army. Then, as with so many other times, he had felt so proud of his daughter, but also guilty that he was the only one who knew the truth. He'd wanted to tell Ronda that he was the proudest dad in the world. If it was just him and Ronda he would have told her as soon as she was old enough to really understand the truth, but there was also Stephanie to consider. How could he tell her that when they had first started their relationship he'd also had another woman on the go at the same time, and a married woman at that? And how could he tell her that when that woman had gotten pregnant and reassured him that it was her husband's child not his, that she had been either mistaken or lying? He hadn't even been told the truth himself until the child, Ronda, was three years old. By that time the relationship with Ronda's mother was long since over and he was married to Stephanie. Telling her had just never seemed like a good idea.

"Another one of your fucking mistakes," he snarled at the mirror. "You should have told her then. Or you should have told her when you forgave her for almost sleeping with Ronda's so-called dad and then killing the guy. You should have told her when you were talking about the adoption. That would have been the best time to do it."

And there was another huge mess: The man Ronda had spent the first ten years of her life calling her father. The man she still thought was her father. The man Stephanie had killed. Coming up with a pack of lies to give to Ronda when she got old enough to start asking serious questions about what had happened was another ill advised mistake, and had left him in the situation where he hadn't just, if just could possibly be the right word, spent more than twenty years lying to his wife, but also the last fifteen lying to his daughter too. Ronda's whole adult life had been a lie, thanks to him and his bad decisions.

If he told the truth now, how would they both react? Would Stephanie leave him? Probably, he admitted to himself, shaking his head. Would Ronda walk away from him? Possibly. Very possibly. He'd made a complete fucking mess of the whole thing, to the point that it was virtually impossible to turn it around. While Laura Molinaro's advice that he really needed to tell his family the truth was right on a base level, it was a lot more complicated than that. He couldn't just come out with it and expect everything to go on as normal. To try and convince himself that was on the cards would be ridiculous.

So what the hell could he do? He needed to tell the truth, but at the same time he couldn't tell the truth. Then it hit him. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it was good. Laura Molinaro and the fact that she had read the DNA results which confirmed that he was Ronda's father was the key. He could say that she had told him about it in their meeting that afternoon, and that he hadn't known himself until then. He could act as shocked as they were. And with Ronda's age, it was also possible that he could get away with telling Stephanie that he'd been with Ronda's mother before things had gotten serious between them. The timeline would be just about believable, if she was inclined to believe him.

"Solve the problem of years of lies by telling more lies. Nice plan, asshole."

What other choice was there though? Risk the secret coming out some other way and having his wife and his daughter walk away from him at the same time and leave him with nothing but the business? The business that he'd always put first. It was time all of that changed. It was time for family to come first. Bullshitting his way out of the deep hole that he'd dug for himself would be quite the challenge, but if he pulled it off he could move forward and change how things were. He could put Stephanie first. He could tell Ronda how proud of her he was. And if she chose to marry Shane, which she had hinted at more than once, he could walk her down the aisle not as her uncle but as her father. That would mean as much to him as it would to her. The truth, or his version of it at least, had to come out.

"Are you okay, Hunter? You've been up here for ages." Stephanie's voice, coming from the bedroom doorway.

Turning and looking at his wife, Hunter took a deep breath. "Yeah. Steph, we need to talk."


	7. Chapter 7

Before he even got started with it, Hunter realised there was a huge flaw in the plan to tell Stephanie more lies in order to tell her the truth about Ronda without her totally losing it. Saying that Laura Molinaro had broken the news to him earlier in the day could easily be exposed as a lie by Stephanie simply asking her about it. Why would Molinaro lie to back him up? Then he realised that if he did go through with the lie there would be another problem too: Why would he have been so quick to believe the word of an almost complete stranger when she claimed to have seen DNA results that proved Ronda was his child?

No, he decided as he walked into the living room with Stephanie following behind him, the lie was off the table. He had to tell the truth. The consequences for his marriage would likely be bad, but at least he wouldn't be keeping secrets anymore. If they could somehow move past it, he would be sure to focus a lot more on family rather than business, as he should have been in the past. What he had to do now was make Stephanie and Ronda see that and believe him. It was going to be easier said than done.

"What's going on, baby?" Stephanie asked, voice full of concern. "You don't look so good. It's not the feds is it?"

"No, it's not the feds," Hunter said, sitting down on one of the couches and gesturing for her to sit beside him. "It's more of a family thing."

"A family thing?" Stephanie sat down and looked at him, a confused expression on her face.

"Yeah." Hunter hesitated, trying to think of the best way to actually say what he wanted to say. "Steph, I've been doing a lot of thinking recently. You know, since we came back from Barbados and everything that happened with Dwayne Johnson. And before that of course. You know, what happened to you. I can't stop thinking that we, I mean I, have been focusing way too much on business and not enough on family. If I'd done things differently, if I hadn't taken the decision to kill Roman Reigns, things would have been so much different for us."

Stephanie had always been a very strong woman. She still was. Coming back from the ordeal that that she'd been through was proof of that. Talking about it was always hard for her though, and Hunter saw her eyes fill with tears as she took his hands and squeezed them tightly. "You shouldn't blame yourself, Hunter. You always did your best for me and for Ronda. We both know that."

"No," Hunter insisted. "Like I said, I could have done things differently. And I'm not just talking about the Reigns thing anyway. I'm talking about for years. It's all been about business. I found myself thinking that yeah, Helmsley effectively owns Warren City, but what good is that if my family aren't happy? I know you're not happy and I totally understand why. We came back her from Barbados before you were ready because of the business. I know Ronda's not happy either. She doesn't want to be a businesswoman and she's finding it very hard to try and adapt. This new opportunity came along for her and I didn't want her to take it because I was thinking of the business. Yes, I was thinking of her safety too, but I was still putting the business ahead of what she wants."

"What are you saying? That you're thinking of selling the business?"

"Not selling it, no. I'm going to start stepping back though and putting family first. You and I have worked hard enough for enough years that we should be enjoying the money we've made, not killing ourselves to make more. We don't need more. We already have more than we'll ever need."

"So you're talking about some kind of partial retirement?" Stephanie asked. He could see the hope in her eyes. She'd been trying for some time to convince him that she was happy to be back in the city and working for Helmsley now that the business had gone legit, but he knew that it wasn't really true. Given the choice, she would much rather have stayed in Barbados.

"Sure, you could call it that. It wouldn't be able to happen right away as I still need to help Ronda. I'm going to tell Shane to take on more a role as far as that's concerned though. He's a plenty good enough businessman himself, and weirdly, I think she might listen to him more than she does to me."

"I seriously doubt that," Stephanie said, managing a grin. "I'll be honest, I'd love it if we could have more time together and enjoy what we've earned. That really does sound perfect. There are so many places around the world that I've always wanted to go."

"Then make a list," Hunter smiled. "Make a list and I'll make sure we go to every single one of them. I promise. Okay?"

Stephanie leaned forwards and kissed him softly on the lips. "Thank you, Hunter. You have no idea how much I needed something like that to look forward to."

The conversation had gone so well to this point, but Hunter knew that was about to change. "There's something else that's been on my mind, Steph."

"What is it, baby?"

"It's uh, about Ronda."

"What about her?"

"I have to tell you something, Steph. Something I should have told you long before now." There was no easy way to say it, so Hunter just blurted it out. "She's my daughter, Steph. Ronda's mine."

Stephanie took her hands back from Hunter as her mouth fell open in shock. "She's what?" she almost whispered, as if unable to raise her voice.

"She's my daughter. Just before you and I got serious I had a thing going on with Trish. She got pregnant and she..."

"I don't fucking believe this," Stephanie said, standing up from the couch.

"She told me the baby wasn't mine, Steph, I swear. I specifically asked me and she said it wasn't."

"So when did you find out the truth?" Stephanie demanded, glaring down at him.

Hunter took a deep breath and admitted, "When she was three. Trish got a DNA test and..."

"Three!" Stephanie screeched at him. "When she was fucking three? You mean you had me adopt your daughter, and you didn't even tell me she was your daughter?"

"It was a big mistake, honey. I know that. I should have told you back then, but I didn't. Since then I always just thought it was best to leave things how they were."

Stephanie had began to pace around the room; her anger seeming to prevent her from hearing him. "That fucking explains it all! Why you wanted to adopt her so bad. Why you're always so fucking wrapped around her little finger. Why it's always been Ronda before me. I couldn't give you a child, but I didn't need to did I? You already had one!"

"Steph, calm down please..."

"Calm down!" she screamed at him. "You've lied to me and had me playing mother to your kid for the last fifteen fucking years! And now you want me to calm down? Fuck you, Hunter! You've done some awful things in your time, but this is the worst. How could you let me adopt Ronda with you without knowing the truth? Fifteen years of my life I've given to that bitch..."

"Don't blame her for this," Hunter snapped back, standing up and looming over Stephanie. "She doesn't know the truth either, so you will not take it out on her."

Stephanie face had turned red with anger. "Oh, of course! Let's all defend Ronda as usual shall we? Wouldn't want her to get upset would we? You know what I say to that? Fuck Ronda! How about that? And fuck you as well. Fuck you and your fucking daughter! I wish I'd have had her killed all those years ago..."

Hunter cut her off by slapping her hard in face, snapping her head to the side. "Don't you fucking dare talk like that," he growled at her.

Holding her sore cheek, Stephanie backed away from him. The revelation that she'd just heard, combined with being struck by her husband was the final straw. Their whole marriage had been nothing more than a pack of lies. Even his claim about sleeping with Trish before they were serious was probably a lie. The timeline with Ronda's age didn't quite tie up right.

It all made sense now. Why Hunter had been so insistant to adopt someone else's child, who wasn't actually someone else's at all. Why they had always been so close. Why Hunter always caved and gave Ronda whatever she wanted. For fifteen years she had tried to put her jealousy aside, and for what? Lies.

And now Hunter had hit her. That hadn't happened for many years. She had threatened to leave him the last time, but he had promised it would never happen again. Another lie.

That was it, she decided. She was done. It was time to get away and get away for good; from Hunter, from his daughter, City, from all of it.

"Hitting me, Hunter?" she hissed at him. "After everything that's happened, you hit me? You come in here and tell me you've lied to me for fifteen years about the child we adopted and _you_ hit _me_? Fuck you. Fuck you and your abuse. Fuck your daughter. Ugh, it makes me sick even to say it. Fuck your business too, and fuck your fake ass promises about changing. You're an animal, and you're a lying bastard."

"Steph, I'm sorry," Hunter attempted.

"No you're not. I told you never to hit me again. This is typical. Anyone who doesn't say or do what you want, you react with violence. That's why I ended up being kidnapped and raped. It was all your fucking fault." The tears started to come, but they didn't didn't slow her down. "Actually, no. It was you and your precious fucking daughter. And while we're on the subject, why exactly are you so proud of her? Don't you actually realise that you've raised a psychotic murderer? That's all she is; a fucking psycho. I'll be glad to get away from her and from you. It's over, Hunter. I can't forgive you for this, ever. I want a divorce."

When Stephanie turned and rushed from the room, Hunter was left standing there in silence, wondering what to do next. His expression hardened as he thought about it.

Stephanie quickly stormed up the stairs, heading for their bedroom. All she wanted to do was throw some of her things in a case and get out of the house, never to come back. As far as she was concerned Hunter could have his daughter. Ronda could have her dad. As long as she was away from them, they could do whatever the hell they wanted. There was a case in her walk-in wardrobe, which she dragged out and tossed onto the bed. Almost frantically, she started dragging clothes out and tossing them onto the bed beside it. When she thought that she had a case full she walked over to the bed, opened the case and started to stuff the clothes inside. She heard Hunter's footsteps as he entered the room behind her.

"Don't even fucking bother, Hunter," she told him, without stopping what she was doing. "I'm done with you and your lies. I'm done with this marriage. I'm done with you. I'm going. Don't try and stop me."

Hunter placed his hands on her shoulders, causing her to stiffen.

"I'm sorry, Steph," he told her quietly. It actually sounded like he meant it.

Hunter reached up and in one quick but powerful motion wrapped his right arm around her neck and jerked upwards as hard as he could, snapping it like a twig. "There's no way I could let you leave. Not with what you know." Lowering himself into a crouch, he gently let Stephanie's lifeless body drop to the floor and then closed her staring eyes with a deep sigh.

After taking a moment to compose himself, he stood up, took his phone out of his pocket and walked out of the bedroom and down the stairs as he made a call.

"Ronda," he said when the call was answered. "I need you to come over right away please."

"It's not about the meeting. I just need you to come over."

"Yes, I know you're working the night shift at the casino. Put someone else in charge and get over here. Now."


	8. Chapter 8

By the time Ronda arrived at the mansion, nearly half an hour had gone by since Hunter had murdered his wife. He had put the time to good use; coming up with a plan regarding what to do with Stephanie's body and how he was going to play things to make sure that no one other than Ronda ever found out that he'd killed her. There would inevitably be questions and suspicions; from Shane first and foremost, but also from the rest of Helmsley's employees as well as the cops, but nothing would ever be proven against him. He would make sure of that.

"Uncle Hunter?" Ronda called out loudly as she used her key to let herself into the mansion.

"In here," he called out from one of the living rooms.

As she walked over there, she called back, "What's going on? We were really busy over there. I kind of had to leave them in the shit." She walked into the room and saw Hunter standing there waiting for her. It seemed odd that he was just standing in the living room, with no TV on or anything.

"We need to talk, Ronda. Let's sit down, okay?"

Ronda found herself thinking that if this wasn't her uncle she was standing in front of, all kinds of alarm bells would have been going off in her head. Aside from everything else that was out of the ordinary about the last half hour, his tone and mannerisms were not quite right. She was accustomed to noticing things like that. "What the fuck's going on?" she demanded, more assertively than before. "Where's Aunt Steph?"

"Just sit down," he urged, taking a seat himself and motioning for her to join him.

Cautiously, Ronda did as he said. "Everything about this is telling me there's something wrong, so start talking."

Seeing the look in her eyes, Hunter said, "You don't need to be weary. But you're right; there is something going on. There's something I need to tell you. Something I should have told you a very, very long time ago. I wish I had. Not telling you was a really bad decision, and one that I regret."

"So tell me then," Ronda said, not cutting him a break at all.

"I uh... Back when Steph and I were in the very early stages of our relationship, I had an affair with someone else."

"Oh for fuck's sake," Ronda groaned, making her displeasure with him obvious. "Don't tell me Aunt Steph found out and she's walked out?"

"Just let me say what I've got to say, Ronda. I had an affair with someone, but I broke it off. Then she came to me and said that she was pregnant, but she assured me the baby wasn't mine. I took her at her word. Then three years later she came to me again and told me that she'd had a DNA test done and the person she thought was the father, well, wasn't. I was. The baby was mine."

What he was trying to say had already clicked in Ronda's head, which had started to spin. "You're telling me... You're trying to say that I'm your... That you're my father?"

Hunter wasn't surprised by the look of bewilderment on her face. The revelation itself wasn't the only thing she had to come to terms with; there were a lot of other ramifications to it, such as the fact that she'd grieved over the man who she'd thought was her father for the last fifteen years.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," he said. "I should have told you. I just didn't want Steph to know about the affair, so I kept it quiet. It was one of those lies that just keeps growing and the more it grows, the worse it is to try and tell the truth."

"I need a minute," Ronda said, sounding almost dazed. She got up and headed for the door. "I can't fucking deal with this."

"There's no time for that," Hunter said sharply before she could make it out of the door. "Get back here."

Taking advantage of her when she was in such a confused state was the latest thing that he regretted having to do, on a night that seemed to be full of regrets. It was necessary to be like this with Ronda though. He knew from experience that when someone was feeling shocked like she was, they were instinctively inclined to be compliant if ordered to do something. Ronda's compliance was crucial to him as far as dealing with Stephanie's death and disposing of her body were concerned. The fact that she had stopped walking away and turned to face him told him all that he needed to know. She would listen to him and do as she was told. It might take some strong words or some persuasion, but she would do it. What he had to now was press on with all of the other revelations that he had to throw at her, before she could process them properly.

"There's more that I need to tell you. Your Aunt Steph has never felt the same way about you as I did. I mean, you and I are flesh and blood. Regardless of the fact that you didn't know that until now, we've always been as close as a father and daughter. You know that. Steph knew it too and she was jealous of it. She was always jealous of it. On the way home from that meeting today I decided that I was going to tell both you and Steph the truth, starting with her. When I got home I sat her down and told her, and she went on this insane tirade against you. She was saying all kinds of shit about how she never wanted to adopt you and things like that. Then she let slip that she once seriously considered having you killed, not long after we adopted you."

"She said what?" Ronda stammered. She looked like her legs might give way from underneath her at any moment.

"She said she plotted to have someone run you down in the street like some kind of dog - like it was a hit and run accident or something. I was horrified obviously, but she carried on, ranting all kinds of shit about how she wanted a divorce, she was leaving me, that kind of thing. She went upstairs and started throwing some of her shit in a case. All I knew was that she was going to take off. I'd just heard that she'd wanted you dead in the past, so I found myself thinking that she might either go and try to hurt you herself or put a hit out on you. Even if she didn't do that, she knew enough to put us all away for life if she went to the feds. There was no way I was going to let any of those things happen. I had to make a choice, Ronda. I chose you. I chose my flesh and blood. I chose to keep the two of us safe."

"What did you do?" Ronda managed to ask him. It was plain that she feared the answer.

"I killed her. I broke her neck."

"Oh my God," Ronda whimpered. She staggered backwards, but there was only room for one step before she hit the open door. Not seeming to be able to control what she was doing, she slumped to a sitting position with her back propped against it. Tears began to pour down her cheeks and her eyes looked glazed over. "You killed Aunt Steph," she mumbled faintly.

Although he hated to see her like that, Hunter pressed on. He walked over to her and held out his hand, offering to help her up. Putting as much command into his voice as he could, he ordered, "On your feet, soldier! We don't have time for that. It was an awful thing to have to do. Don't you think I hate myself for it? It had to be done, for Helmsley. That's me and you now, Ronda. Now get up and focus. There's more to be done."

Speaking to her in that way seemed to switch her back on. Whether it was her military training taking over, or whether she had realised that he was right about what he'd said, he had no idea. The important thing was that she grasped his hand firmly, allowed him to pull her to her feet and then wiped the tears from her eyes as best she could.

"What do you need me to do?"

Hunter decided that the best thing to do would be to issue her with an order. Following orders was what she good at. "Go upstairs to my bedroom. Steph's up there and so is a case full of her clothes. Dispose of them so that they're never found. And nobody but us is ever allowed to know about this. Nobody. Is that understood?"

The shock of the evening's events still had Ronda reeling, but she had reached a decision. She believed what her Uncle Hunter, her father, had told her. It made sense. Stephanie had never been as close to her as Hunter had. As she had been sitting on the floor, not even knowing how she ended up there, Stephanie's words from the day that Dwayne Johnson had been killed had replayed themselves in her head. At the time it had seemed so real, so convincing when Stephanie had spewed hate at her. There was a reason for that. She had made it convincing for Dwayne by actually speaking the truth. She had said what she really felt. Ronda just knew that Hunter had been telling the truth when he'd said that Stephanie had admitted to wanting to have her killed - to wanting to get her out of the way. In order to keep her safe, he had made the hardest of decisions. After that, there was no way she could turn her back on him.

"Oh fuck," she mumbled as she tried to find some semblance of composure.

"Are you with me on this?" Hunter demanded of her.

"I'm with you... dad."

"Good girl," Hunter said, pulling her into a hug. "This is how it's going to go: You're going to do as I've said tonight, and then we're going to act like Steph up and left us without saying anything. We file a missing person report with the cops, the whole nine yards. Apart from that, we have to go on with business as normal. We cannot let on in any way what happened here tonight. It is our secret. Pretty soon you're going to get a call from Laura Molinaro about your first contract too. You're going to go work for her as we agreed, and you're going to be on your 'A' game."

When she pulled away from him, Ronda looked him in the eyes. There was now determination in her expression as well as shock. "I won't let you down. We are Helmsley."

"You're fucking right we are," Hunter said proudly.


	9. Chapter 9

_Six week later_

"That was quite a win," Hunter said, smiling as he sat down on the comfortable lounge seat and set his glass of whisky down on the glass coffee table in front of him.

The Warren City Warriors had just beaten the New York Yankees by four runs to two, extending their winning streak to six games. Hunter had rented the most expensive and luxurious executive suite that the stadium had to offer for the day. It was a special occasion after all.

Ronda, Thea and Melina had returned from their first contract only two days earlier. Ronda had been delighted to tell him that the operation had been executed seamlessly and professionally. The three woman team was the real deal. To celebrate, Hunter had invited Thea, Melina and Laura to join him, Ronda and Shane at the game. With the contest now over, they were now all sitting in the lounge area of the suite, enjoying some drinks and the pleasure of each other's company. Hunter found himself thinking that his line of work was very strange at times. Had things gone differently, he could have ended up at war with Laura Molinaro and Dwayne Johnson in the past.

To say that things were back to normal after Stephanie's death would not have been accurate. Shane was still off about the whole thing, as if part of him suspected that Hunter had either played a part in her disappearance or somehow knew more than he was letting on. It was Ronda's assurances that were slowly getting him to come around to the fact that his sister just might have had a breakdown and left without telling anyone where she was going. Unsurprisingly, the police had gotten nowhere with either finding Stephanie or picking a hole in Hunter's story.

"Two runs and an RBI for your man Cody Rhodes," Thea said to Ronda, remembering that he was her favourite player.

"You know it," Ronda grinned, before taking a healthy drink from her glass of wine.

"I think the Warriors got lucky," Shane griped, only half pretending. Along with Thea and Laura, he was originally from New York, and that was where his allegiance remained as far as baseball was concerned.

"Right," Laura agreed. She was proudly wearing a Yankees shirt with her surname on the back. "And that's two games in a row now too."

"I don't know much about baseball, but I sure like the wine," Melina giggled.

"No shit," Ronda said. "You've drank three bottles of it."

"I have not!" Melina slurred, faking outrage. "This is the second one I've just finished... I think."

Everyone laughed at that. While the banter and laughter continued, Hunter noticed the way that Thea kept looking at him. He'd seen that look from plenty of women before. It appeared that she liked herself an older man. It was more than fine with him as there was no doubt that she was stunningly attractive herself, if a lot shorter than his usual taste. Telling himself that no one was perfect, he leaned forward and refilled her glass her for her. As he handed it to her, he made sure to catch her eye and let her know that he was very much interested. Going back to an empty house night after night had quickly gotten old.

While he hadn't being paying attention, the subject had apparently been changed. Laura was saying, "You'll get your cut by the end of the week. From what you've told me, the operation couldn't have gone much better. I'll definitely be looking to give you more work in the near future."

"I think we should drink to that," Melina cut in, raising her wine glass. "To success."

The toast was repeated by everyone, including Laura, who let the interruption slide. Glasses were clinked together, and they all drank to success.

Thea spoke next. "And I think we should thank Hunter for his hospitality today." She raised her glass again and said, "To Hunter."

Everyone toasted Hunter. Accepting it with a smile, he kept his eyes locked on Thea's, trying to let his own say, "Okay honey, we'll get out of here as soon as we can."

Not wanting to be upstaged, Laura had a toast of her own to propose. "This three woman team wouldn't have been able to come together if it wasn't for Ronda, and if it wasn't for Hunter agreeing to get on-board with the idea. I think it could prove to be just the start of a very fruitful business partnership between myself and Helmsley."

"I'd like to think so," Ronda nodded.

"I see no reason why not," Hunter agreed. Laura had mentioned to him that she had plenty of legitimate business interests which could be aligned with those of Helmsley, to the benefit of everyone involved.

"To partnership," Laura smiled, raising her glass once more.

Again, the toast was repeated and everyone emptied their glasses. While Melina set about the task of refilling for everyone, Hunter looked across at Ronda and Shane, who had started talking to each other quietly. Seeing his daughter so happy was all it took for him to tell himself that he had no reason to regret what had happened with Stephanie. If she had been allowed to leave he would have always had that fear in the back of his mind that something might happen to Ronda thanks to his estranged wife. Ronda was very happy in her relationship with Shane, and Hunter knew that his future son-in-law always treated her right. If his daughter was happy, so was he.

As far as business was concerned, the Helmsley empire was continuing to thrive. There were no concerns in that regard. And now he apparently had Thea ready to throw herself at him. If it was for more than just a night of sex, which he assumed it would be - although the night of sex would be fine too - he could well be about to move on in that regard too.

Life was good, he decided with a satisfied smile.

* * *

Paul Heyman had always been a decisive man. At that moment though, he was struggling big time over a decision that he had to make.

The fact that Stephanie Helmsley had supposedly decided to leave Hunter, leave the business and leave Warren City without even saying anything to anyone just hadn't sat right with him since the moment he'd been told about it. Aside from Hunter and Shane, he knew that he was probably the closest to Stephanie. They had worked together at the Helmsley food processing plant for many years. Knowing her as well as he did, he just couldn't see Stephanie running away. After everything that had happened, it seemed much more likely to him that she had told Hunter that she wanted to leave him. If Hunter had gone into a fit of rage, Paul definitely wouldn't put it past him to kill her, or anyone else for that matter. That was the kind of man he was.

Although he had been loyal to Helmsley for his entire adult life, Paul had loved Stephanie as a friend. The thought of her being murdered by her husband and then tossed away like a piece of garbage was close to being too much to bear. At the same time, going back on all of those years of loyalty would be an incredibly hard and painful think to have to do. There was no middle ground though; he had to either stay loyal to Helmsley and keep his mouth shut, or he had to go totally the opposite way and tell the FBI everything he knew about Hunter and Ronda Helmsley in return for a place in witness protection for himself and his family.

The number of the local police department had been on his phone's display for the past ten minutes. The display had tried to turn itself off every thirty seconds, but Paul had kept touching it to keep it lit up. Bringing himself to hit call was proving to be impossible, but so was erasing the number or putting the phone away.

"Make a decision," he told himself angrily. "And for fuck's sake make sure it's the one you can live with."

His thumb hovered over the green phone icon which would initiate the call, while his index finger rested on the power key.

END


End file.
